​Let your imagination listen to the great historical menagerie of presidential pets and you’ll hear the sounds of their feathered friends, like Thomas Jefferson’s mockingbirds, or Calvin Coolidge’s canaries and maybe his pet goose – OR parrots? George and Martha Washington had more than one. When President James Madison and his wife moved into the White House in 1809, so did Dolley Madison’s green and yellow macaw parrot.

​ Dolley was known for her fashionable turbans and often, for Polly, the big bright, squawk-ative bird on her shoulder, helping to greet her guests. And how thrilling, when high-spirited Polly swooped about the high-ceilinged rooms and dive-bombed the company! Later, she was part of the scary, War of 1812 drama, when, in 1814, red-coated British soldiers torched the White House. But at least Dolley made sure they didn’t get their hands on the precious painting of President Washington, or her precious Polly.

Just months later, General Andrew Jackson led a rough, frontier army down the Mississippi River to drive the British out of New Orleans. Victorious Andy Jackson, national hero, ended up being President, from 1829 to 1837. That old soldier knew a lot of salty language and so his pet parrot, Poll. We know this because in 1845, he attended ex-President Jackson’s funeral – at least until a shocked human carried poor Poll out of the room. Too much sad excitement had set him to squawking curse words!

At the end of the 1800s, President William McKinley amused himself by teaching his yellow-headed Mexican parrot how to whistle “Yankee Doodle.” After Mr. McKinley died of an assassin’s bullet, in 1901, former Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took office. He and First Lady Edith Roosevelt and their six children had LOTS of pets, including a big, beautiful parrot named Eli Yale. Eli was a deep blue hyacinth macaw.

There would be other presidential parrots. After all, the big worldwide parrot family has 350 species. Parakeets, for instance: John F. Kennedy’s little girl had two of them. Lyndon B. Johnson’s family kept lovebirds, little candy-colored parrots. But more than a century has passed since a big, big-beaked macaw like Polly or Poll has lived in the White House. Deep blue Eli Yale was the last - so far.

Macaws are large, long-tailed parrots, from Mexico, Central and South America. Wikimedia

Dolley Madison

​Andrew Jackson owned an African grey parrot. Wikimedia

​Cockatiels, cockatoos, and large flightless kakapos are just a few of the many kinds of parrots. One of the biggest is the gentle, South American hyacinth macaw – from head to tail, more than three feet long! Wikimedia

Every fall, the smell of popcorn and hot dogs fills the air as fans make their way into stadiums to cheer for the home team. Football is such a big part of our world that it is hard to imagine life in America without the sport.

But in 1905, football was nearly cancelled—forever. By the end of the year, nineteen boys had died as a result of playing football. Because of these deaths and the many injuries that occurred during the season, Columbia University in New York City decided they would no longer have a football team. Other colleges considered banning their football teams too.

At the time, Teddy Roosevelt was President of the United States. He was a football fan and believed young Americans should live a “strenuous life” filled with hard work and physical activity. President Roosevelt did not want America to lose football, but he also understood the game needed to be less brutal that it was. So he called a meeting between the coaches of Harvard, Yale and Princeton on October 9, 1905. The coaches joined Roosevelt at the White House to discuss how to make football safer.

As the season drew to a close, the future of football was still in question. In December Walter Camp, the man who invented American football, led a group called the Intercollegiate Rules Committee to make rule changes. As part of the changes, the Committee wanted officials to enforce rules against kneeing, kicking and punching on the field. For the first time football would include a forward pass. They also changed the distance it would take for a first down—it had been five yards, but the new rules changed it to ten yards.

The rule changes of 1905 are still part of football today, and so is Walter Camp’s Committee. Today it is known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) which still governs the rules of college football.

This cartoon titled “Next! A President Who ‘Does’ Things.” depicts President Theodore Roosevelt and includes an injured football player on the right side. Image: Library of Congress

Did you know that football was almost banned in 1905 because nineteen players were dead and countless others injures? Carla McClafferty has written a book that balances the love of America’s most popular spectator sport with a hard look at its costs for players. This is a must read for players and coaches. Carla McClafferty is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through Field Trip Zoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.

*NEWSFLASH*September, 2018: iNK begins its fifth year of publication of the Nonfiction Minute-- an amazing free resource with more than 4 million page views.

*NEWSFLASH *The NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Committee is pleased to inform youthat 30 People Who Changed the World has been selected for Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2018, a cooperative project of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) & the Children’s Book Council